Temple Grandin on new edition of ‘Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals’

Temple Grandin was a teenager when she realized she understood animals in a way most people don’t. Autism caused her to think in pictures rather than words. And she would startle at sudden movements and high-pitched noises in a way that didn't make sense to those around her.

Her eagle eye for detail — and her keen sense of fear — led her to notice subtle things that would startle an animal. “It seems obvious: it spooks at a swinging chain, it spooks at a hose on the ground, a coat on a fence, a reflection on a puddle — especially little things that move,” Dr. Grandin said, in an interview for Elsevier Connect. “But you know, most people don't notice those little things that scare the animal.

“An animal doesn't think in words,” she explained. “An animal thinks in sensory images — pictures, sounds, smells, touch sensations. Animals notice little details that most people tend to not see."

Dr Grandin’s uncanny ability to get inside the minds of animals — and a lifetime of research in which she has applied her understanding to livestock handling — led her to edit the classic text Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals, published by Elsevier’s Academic Press in 1997.

Bridging the gap between animal behavior and genetics

“One of the really interesting things I’ve learned is how animals evolve,” she said. “You not only have changes in the coding DNA; you have changes in the non-coding, or regulatory, DNA.” It is the changes in both types of DNA that cause a species to change over time. In the book, she gives the example of the stickleback fish, citing a 2012 study in Nature opens in new tab/window by Felicity C Jones et. al.:

“I’m trying to bridge the gap between the people in the animal behavior world and (experts in) genetics,” Dr Grandin said. “You get people who do all that molecular biology and they forget there’s even an animal attached to that. We need to have more things where people get out of their silos and communicate … instead of people just staying in their own area.”

The animal mind

The ability to connect with other people was a challenge for Grandin when she was growing up. Autism was poorly understood in the 1950s and 1960s, and kids bullied her for being different and for her tendency to repeat herself verbatim. “They called me tape recorder, they called me bones because I was skinny, and they called me workhorse because all I wanted to do was work in the horse barn,” she said.

Ultimately, she found that riding horses gave her a way to connect with people who had the same interest. And while her differences caused her to stand out in school – they led her to accomplish things few others would be able to.

“I’m just an extremely visual thinker,” said Dr Grandin, who has compared her thoughts to videotapes and her recollections to Google Images. “It was kind of a revelation to know that most people don’t think like I do.”

Dr Grandin is widely known for her bestselling books on autism and animal behavior, her appearances on news shows like 20/20 and 60 Minutes, and the award-winning HBO movie Temple Grandin opens in new tab/window, staring Claire Danes. Her interviews have been broadcast on National Public Radio, and she has a 2010 TED lecture called "The World Needs ALL Kinds of Minds opens in new tab/window."

She did this interview while waiting for a plane. And when asked if she has pets herself, she answered only by saying, “I'm on the road 90% of the time."

I'm just an extremely visual thinker — it was kind of a revelation to know that most people don't think like I do.

Who is the book for?

In the same way her career has touched many audiences, her book is intended for a broad readership. As the editors state in the preface: "This book will be of interest to biologists, researchers, veterinarians, livestock producers, zoo curators, behavioral ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and people who own and train domestic animals."

“It's for everybody – scientists, people who breed animals, anyone who works with animals," Dr. Grandin said. “In the first chapter, we define all these arcane genetics terms so if someone is just interested in breeding animals, they will know what the heck we're talking about."

The text alternates between easy-to-understand examples presented in layman's terms to detailed scientific explanations with footnoted references.

It covers everything from dogs to livestock – what startles animals, what can be trained and what can't be, what's genetic, what's learned and what's both. Dr. Grandin is equally fluent talking about the emerging field of epigenetics – which deals with how genes are "turned on or off" and affected by environmental factors – as what puts people's pets on edge.

For epigenetics, she referred to an experimental finding detailed in Chapter 1:

The offspring of rat mothers who display high levels of nurturing behavior such as licking and grooming are less anxious and produce less stress hormones, compared to the offspring of less nurturing mothers. In turn, the female offspring of nurturing mothers become nurturing mothers themselves. The effects of maternal behavior are mediated in part through epigenetic mechanisms.

The practical side of science

As to what stresses animals, much of that can be figured out by paying attention to visual cues.

“I have a slide I show my veterinary students where I show a dog with its legs kind of splayed out bracing itself on a slick veterinary table," Dr Grandin said. "I show it to the vet students and say, 'Do you see anything about this picture?' Most of them don't see that the dog is having difficulty standing on that table. "You go on the Internet and you type in 'dog at the veterinary clinic' and you get all these cute pictures there, and half the dogs have their front feet splayed out because they're having trouble staying upright — and people don't notice it."

Just as Dr. Grandin has put her expertise to use in the real world of livestock handling, the scientific explanations in the book have practical applications.

A key message: “Don’t over-select for any single trait. I don’t care what the trait is — behavioral, performance, appearance. If you over-select for a single trait, you will wreck your animal.”

For example, breeding chickens to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow until they have leg problems.”

The advice was important enough for Dr. Grandin to repeat, as she often repeats phrases for emphasis, this time with a familiar example.

“Don't over select for any single trait. I mean, look at the bulldog — that's a monstrosity.”

And in response to the suggestion: "But the French bulldogs are so cute — ”

“They're cute but they can't breathe, they can't walk and they can't have their babies naturally.”

In the preface to the book, the editors write:

Animals can be altered by genetic selection to such an extent that serious structural or neurological defects develop. It is not possible to have an adequate level of animal welfare if a selected trait becomes so extreme that it causes obvious mobility problems, or if it causes a condition that is known to be painful in humans.

That knowledge is at the core of the message Dr. Grandin hopes to convey with this book.

“I hope one of the things people are going to learn,” she said, "is that genetics really does affect behavior."